My lightest Yorkshire puddings

Yorkshire puddings for dinner restore all sense of calm in our house. Some days I look at my frazzled sons and can almost see the eggs, flour and milk dancing into the bowl. Perhaps it’s the simplicity of a Yorkshire pudding that serves to calm heightened emotions. Perhaps it’s the beef dripping. No matter. They’re like a grown up Ashton and Parsons hit. Some days we all need one of them.

There are so many recipes for Yorkshire puds, each one claiming to be the best, the lightest, the tallest and the crispiest. So all I will claim is that these are MY lightest Yorkshire puddings. There’s nothing revolutionary in the mix; just the usual plain flour, egg and milk. What might be a little different is the method. I say might, as in might not.

Why no quantities? Aah, all will become clear. I came up with this recipe after lots of trial and error. I sometimes find Yorkshire puddings with more flour a little doughy, almost cake like. Whereas these are most definitely light and airy in look and feel. If you can get hold of beef dripping and indeed, if you eat beef, please do try it. It makes all the difference to these little pockets of moreish air. If not then use oil that likes to be heated to a high temperature, so groundnut oil or vegetable oil would be great.

Fill the kettle up and pop it on to boil. Switch your oven on to the highest setting and make sure there’s a rack at the top of the oven and one in the middle. Once the kettle has boiled fill a high sided roasting tray with the boiling water and carefully place on the middle rack of the oven. Then pop about a thumb nail sized slither of beef dripping into each mini muffin tin hole. (Or a teaspoon of oil if you’re not of the beef dripping persuasion.) Pop that on the top shelf of the oven. Shut the door and leave well alone for a minimum of 15 minutes. You need the dripping to be smoking hot and the oven to be as warm as possible.

In the meantime make the Yorkshire pudding batter. Take an egg, whatever size you have to hand, and weigh it in the shell in grams. Make a note of this amount. Weigh out half of this amount in plain flour (my egg was 64g so I weighed out 32g plain flour) and put into a large bowl. Then crack the egg in the middle. Whisk until the flour and egg are well mixed and look smooth. Then pour out the same amount in milk in mls into the floury-eggy mixture as your egg weighed. So if your egg was 64g like mine was, add 64mls of milk. Whisk until completely combined and smooth. Pop in the fridge until the 15 minutes oven warming time is up.

Pour the batter into the fat filled mini muffin holes about half way up. Once all the batter has gone put the tray back onto the top shelf of the oven, close the door and leave for 10 minutes until you check on them. They should be well risen and lightly browned when you remove them, leave them in if they still look a bit blonde. If you make too many, just freeze them. They can be reheated in a moderate oven from frozen. I always have a few in my freezer as they boys are Yorkshire pudding fiends and though I like to please them, I’m not sure 8 each is such a great thing.

too many yorkshire puds? Nope, sorry, can’t get my head around that one. Surely if there are to many to have with the main meal you just pump squirty cream into the central cavity and smother with golden syrup to have as your dessert? (Possibly better with oil than beef dripping!)

I don’t know about weights either(!), but I use half milk half water in my mix. That’s made a big difference to our Yorkies. I have the oven as hot as it will go until I put the tray in the oven, and then I turn the oven to 190C (fan oven). Of course, the temp never comes down to 190 while the Yorkies are in…
Oh, and mine definitely take longer than 10 mins …. if we open the oven door before 15 mins, we have spoiled ones …. Not good!

My daughter made them tonight, even though it was Spag Bol we were having. Go figure!

I’m a mum of 3 boys, a cookbook writer and also a finalist on the 2011 Great British Bake Off.
I’ve decided to record the recipes I use, partly to save them somewhere and partly in case someone else might like to use them...
[Read more]